Some Morons are Crowdfunding an Anti-Anita Sarkeesian Documentary

Crowdfunding can be a great way to revive cult-favourite pieces of entertainment or allow creative people to pursue passion projects that would be otherwise shunned by large publishing houses. It can also be a great way for idiots to spread their idiocy, case in point: The Sarkeesian Effect, a new documentary analysing the “Social Justice Warrior” movement. Seriously. This is actually a thing that is happening now.

The documentary is being created on Patreon by Jordan Owen, an allegedly prominent YouTuber, musician and author, and Davis Aurini, an “alternative right wing blogger”, as an attempt to tell the “untold side of the SJW story”.

The Sarkeesian Effect is an upcoming documentary film that will explore how gaming and tech culture have been hijacked by Social Justice Warriors as well as look into the background, ethics, and methodology of some the movement’s most prominent voices. The title is a reference to Anita Sarkeesian, the primary figure in this new shift in gaming culture. Ms. Sarkeesian’s controversial videos and Kickstarter campaign laid the groundwork for the current atmosphere of politically correct fear, manipulation, and intimidation.

In the FAQ section of the film’s Patreon page, questions like “Are you guys MRAs?”, “Are you just harassing Sarkeesian?”, and “Don’t you already have popular YouTube channels?” make this whole thing a fascinating cesspool of lecherous hilarity. Of the Patreons listed, only one is a woman, and one goes by the handle “Satan the Autistic Faggot”. That’s some fan base you’ve got there.

In their Patreon video, Owen and Aurini claim to be fighting for the right to criticize those who seek to make money from “Social Justice Movements”. Okay, I can almost see that being a fair point. But when your job is, say, being a writer or content creator focused on gaming and tech culture, isn’t that sort of your job? You make money discussing all aspects of culture? Isn’t it far worse to seek funding for a project designed to attack and insult those who are trying to make gaming and tech spaces better for everyone. You might disagree with the way in which Sarkeesian used crowdfunding to “buy games”, and you might dislike the quality of her videos, but to blame her for shutting out criticisms when most of them came in the form of disgusting rape threats is pretty pathetic.

The lack of self awareness on display here is incredible though. One of these guys hopes to get your money by wearing a black suit, smoking a cigarette and drinking scotch whilst grinning smugly from his leather armchair. If you want to come across as “the good guys”, don’t dress like a modern film version of the Devil himself.

I’ve written about this kind of thing a lot, and it’s starting to get pretty tiresome explaining to a small number of people what everyone else in 2014 already understands. People of
different genders, orientations, sexualities, religions, nationalities etc. are all fine, and they should all be able to feel free to enjoy the things that straight, white guys can. Games are amazing and so are people, so let’s all enjoy games together, regardless of those minor differences that some believe separate us.

In regards to the film though, I’m fully aware that this post will raise awareness of the project, for better and for worse. Some are attempting to report the film for the use of copyrighted images in its poster, so that’s something you can do if you want to get rid of it. Part of me actually wants to see it funded and made, if anything to see what sort of thin arguments these guys come up with to defend their ass-holery. If you do one thing though, take the time to pity these guys for their smug and exclusionary attitudes, and hope that they become better people from their mistakes.

About Liam Lambert

as inflammatory as the headline is you’re entitled to write it even if your bias shows in the way you’ve written the article with a lot of accusatory and insisting terms.

If Anita doesn’t like what she sees in video games (cherry picked instances of outrageous content), rather than saying “it’s offensive, it has to stop” why not offer an idealised alternative herself so our consumer-driven society can continue without having to pander to the sensitivities of the morally outraged?

“People of different genders, orientations, sexualities, religions, nationalities etc. are all fine, and they should all be able to feel free to enjoy the things that straight, white guys can.”

So being opposed to Anita Sarkeesian’s activism automatically makes you a racist? Literally the only reason you might be against her ham-fisted critiques of gaming using out-dated, fringe psychological concepts is that you are a hateful bigot? Maybe some of us just think that she is a very poor spokesperson for equality and an enemy of freedom.

Kimozabi

You literally couldn’t find a more liberal “article” than this.

The mile high throne of morality that this author has place himself on must leave him very thin air up there. He certainly isn’t able to think or do anything but regurgitate the typical liberal script when trying to win an argument without engaging the actual argument and just trying to label people.
“Oh look, someone who don’t throw themselves at the feet of my prophet, the mighty Sarkeesian and eat the scraps from her table. What idiots are they.”

It speak volumes about how stereotypically arrogant and frankly stupid this whole article is, when it attempts to defeat a documentary without knowing what it argues at all, using nothing but making fun of people for the way they look. Which then becomes twice hillarious when you look at the author’s own image, where he waddles around in his belief that “if you don’t agree with me that my feelings should dictate what everyone plays, you’re a dick.”

The more you think about this article, the more you can just copy it wholesale to any dictionary and put it under the definition of “liberal douchebag”. No discussions about anything, nobody must ridicule his idols and “ur stupid” if you have other opinions. He looks like the kind of person that believes that “rightwing” is a curse word rather than a term for a certain political leaning.

And of course, even though he is dressed to the instruction manual of a stereotype, he is never the one that lacks self-awareness, it’s only all them people with them wrong opinions.

And of course, not to be outdone by other liberal writers, he doesn’t shy away from twisting the words and intentions of the people he hates:
“but to blame her for shutting out criticisms when most of them came in the form of disgusting rape threats is pretty pathetic.”

Which is of course monumental bullshit. She has never accepted a single debate where she would have an actual opponent – she will only ever accept an interview when she can speak unchallenged. She will block anything on Twitter, even people who inform her of other people harassing her or attempting to stir up hate against her. She has disabled comments AND ratings on her Youtube videos as if yes/no ratings could ever qualify as threats or harassment. She is a coward and affraid of any type of challenge. She can’t even name 3 sexist games without her script, which Stephen Colbert made embarassingly clear on his show.
But of course, she sits on Twitter, claims sexism isn’t possible towards men, she attacked and slandered Christopher Hitchens, an actual unapologetic, non-coward critic that brought actual value into the world, 2 days AFTER he died and thus couldn’t respond, and she exploited a school shooting to advertise a book she just happened to be featured on the back cover of.
She graduated from a scam college and her Master’s Thesis was of such horrendous quality that she removed it from her site again, but not before exposing exactly what kind of qualifications she has (and what she doesn’t have).

But because she was rejected from book criticism, she cast her sights on video games, where the media is 95% straight, white males who spend their days whining about how game devs should include more women and people of color, despite they themselves being very reluctant to do the same. And these white men are so desperate for women to find their field interesting that they will stay silent about anything bad og shitty done by any woman.

And so, only her critics are ever slandered with ad hominem attacks, and never her. That’s blasphemy it seems.
A critic of sexism in video games – even though she only ever mentions the same 2-3 genres – makes sexist comments on twitter = Oh, who cares?
A female game dev claims to have stabbed a person in the face and not reported it = Yeah, we’re not reporting or investigating that.
The same female game dev is being accused of having sexually harassed another game dev = Pfft, that’s not news.
A male game dev is accused of rape with no evidence to support the accusation = OMG NEWS LET’S ALL REPORT ON IT.

Sarkeesian sits in her videos only lambasting the same 2-3 genres over and over and tries to extrapolate that to the entire games industry and every genre of games. As if hidden Object Games, Educational Games, Social Media games, Puzzle games, Racing games, Adventure games etc etc etc don’t count. And she finds the most dubious studies with a number of participants so low that no respectable statistician would ever consider them valid, and makes sweeping generalizations.

And instead of realizing that the discussion of sexism in many video games is too important to allow it to be muddled by a scam artist with antagonistic and vitriolic deflections levied against criticism of any sort, all media and idiots like Liam Lambert leap to her defense and try to ridicule any attempt to challenge her, starting a proper discussion and making the arguments stronger and more sound. If anybody actually wanted to poke holes in Feminist Frequency they can do it. It’s not very difficult.

The discussion of sexism in many video games deserve a better critic than Sarkeesian. It deserves to have all arguments for and against debated and investigated, it deserves a press that isn’t deflecting any type of criticism as “misogyny” and who doesn’t raise up one person to be above questioning, criticism and doubt of any kind. It deserves a leftwing group that don’t consider her to be some sort of female Jesus whose words may never be questioned, who don’t actively seek to shut down any consenting voices and who are able to put their label makers away, even for just 5 minutes.
And it deserves a rightwing group that don’t act like retarded children and keeps harassing the people discussing sexism in many video games.

But the media has done such a wonderful job of making Sarkeesian a symbol for online harassment of women that we will never have a discussion cleansed of harassment and vitriol when everyone focuses only on Sarkeesian. Her and the media will continue to treat any question as misogyny and keep writing one attack article after the other, as if they think that if they keep yelling at people who don’t agree for long enough, they will eventually convince everyone that they’re right.

And when they only refuse to actually look inside for a fraction of a second and think that maybe their retoric, their tactics, their smear campaigns and their slander might not be the best way of getting everyone on board with them, that’s all we ever get.

Hey, liberals, maybe the outrageous, unacceptable reactions you’re getting come from a place that is not just “MISOGYNY”. There simply can’t be that many women-haters out there. When people point out that Sarkeesian created a conclusion from a study that has a sample size waaaaaaaay to small to be representative of anything, they don’t necessarily hate women. It might instead be a sign that you guys need to do more research or find more studies to make your argument concrete.

You know, studying the problem so you can actually find its root and actually determine if it’s as bad as you think or if it’s even worse.

But, I digress – that would require liberals to admit they were actually not 100% right about everything they do, and Armageddon will occur before that happens. And you could tell them that they themselves are in part to blame for the discussion never evolving and only takes places in two separate place, in two separate groups that already agree with themselves.

But thank you, Liam, for a nice laugh, for claiming that everyone else lacks self-awareness while you’re bathed in it, and for your continued effort to never advance discourse beyond the pool of mud and hate that it currently is.

Basiclife1

The issues Anita raises are valid but she cherry-picks examples out of context and exaggerates.

There is a problem but she’s definitely not part of the solution, just someone who wants to make some money and grab a little fame.

Gandalf Olorin

This article is such a gigantic failure. It tries to mock and insult this project with nothing but stupid ad hominems, and the highest rated comment is in direct opposition to this article writer’s opinion. To the writer; you GET nothing!GOOD DAY, SIR! GOOD DAY!

Allen J Harris

Perhaps the worst review of anything I’ve seen since the actual Sarkeesian videos. Your bias is on your sleeve, Lambert. People get to criticize Sarkeesian and her lot – whether you like it or not.